More than 400 Curo customers and stakeholders joined colleagues at The Hub at Mulberry Park, Bath, on Saturday 10 September for Curo’s BIG Get Together.
The event went ahead as planned after discussions with colleagues and customers. As part of the presentations, we held a one-minute silence in honour of Her Majesty The Queen.
Every year, Curo holds a residents’ event where colleagues get together with customers to listen and share ideas. This year, after feedback from more than 300 customers, we made some changes. Instead of the traditional midweek evening slot, we moved it to Saturday so that more customers could come along to meet our teams and directors face to face. There were also lots of fun, family activities and customers enjoyed a tasty BBQ with free burgers, hotdogs and hot and cold drinks.
“The event was well organised, informative and totally beyond my expectations,” said one customer. “The presentations were well timed and structured. And on top of all that, you even fed and watered us!”
Curo colleagues from all our services, from Repairs to Independent Lives, had stalls at the events. Each Curo team gave customers a snapshot of the services they offer, providing handouts with useful tips, and customers could take time to talk to them and get answers to their questions.
Curo’s teams were joined by colleagues from Avon and Somerset Police, BANES Homesearch and the Centre for Sustainable Energy, who all gave information on their services. Overall, there were more than 20 stalls at the event.
Customers had tickets for either a morning session, running from 10am-12.30pm, or an afternoon session, from 1pm-3.30pm
To encourage more families to join us at the event, we introduced exciting activities such as donkey rides, face painting, bouncy castles and a petting zone with rabbits and goats. There were also lots of games on the service stalls, inspiring young people to find out more about what we do.
“My neighbour, son and I came along for the morning,” said another customer. “The food and drinks were great, and my son loved the petting zone, BBQ and the ‘guess the tool’ game!”
As well as the activities, customers heard directly from Daisy Gaunt, Chair of the Customer Oversight Group, Liz Potter, Chair of the Board; Victor Da Cunha, Chief Executive; Julie Evans, Executive Director of Property; and Paul Harris, Executive Director of Customer Service; who talked about:
· The challenges facing Curo.
· What improvements have been made in the last 12 months.
· How teams are listening to and learning from our customers.
· How we’ve performed over the past year.
· What the future holds for Curo.
The panel then took part in a Q&A session where they answered questions from the audience.
Curo’s BIG Get Together was our most ambitious and successful annual residents’ event to date. It wouldn’t have been possible without the hard work of colleagues and the customers who were there on the day. Thank you to everyone who took part.
We’re also grateful for the fantastic customer feedback we’ve received so far. One customer told us: “You were all so welcoming and friendly. I came home feeling that Curo is a great landlord. You’re very caring and, if we contact you, there’s always help available. The advice given at the event was superb and I’m really thankful to everyone who hosted it.”
